New dinosaur species, Titanosaur has its heart on tail: Discovered

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Representational Image
Representational Image

New Delhi : Imagine an animal's heart on its bum? Yes, scientists have discovered a new dinosaur species which used have heart in its tail. Palaeontologists say that this enormous beast had heart-shaped tail bones. 

The new dinosaur species has been discovered in Tanzania which explains how ecosystems evolved on the African continent during the Cretaceous period. The dinosaur named Mnyamawamtuka moyowamkia is another member of the large, long-necked Titanosaur sauropods, said researchers at the Ohio University in the US. 

Palaeontologists spent five years so that they could dig out all of the bus-size dinosaur's fossilized bones and teeth. And the discovery of this semi complete 100-million-year-old Titanosaur reveals more about how Titanosaurs in Africa were related to their cousins in South America.

"It's pretty cute," said study lead researcher Eric Gorscak, a research associate at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and an assistant professor at Midwestern University just outside Chicago. "[The vertebra] has these two prominent bumps on the top corners … and at the bottom it kind of comes down to a point, so it gives it that heart outline. It looks like the emoji of the heart."

It was in 2004, when researchers discovered the first few M. moyowamkia fossils in the Mtuka River bed in southwest Tanzania. Mnyamawamtuka moyowamkia (Mm-nya-ma-wah-mm-too-ka mm-oh-yo-wa-mm-key-ah), which means "beast of the Mtuka" and "heart of the tail," respectively, in Swahili, was a big beast, but it wasn't done growing yet.

The Titanosaur's vertebrae indicates that it was fairly young, like a teenager but it's unclear how it died.  The teenage Titanosaur likely weighed up to about 1.6 tons (1.5 metric tons), stood about 5 feet (1.5 m) tall at the hips and measured about 25 feet (7.6 m) long from head to tail, Gorscak and O'Connor said

Researchers are still learning about this new dinosaur species. More updates are yet to come up. Till then, stay tuned!